Protesters say the Number 1 motive of the prison is profit and does not take into consideration the lives of people on the inside.

One man, who is the son of immigrants from El Salvador, says his cousin is in jail on an immigration issue right now. He says that there should be another place for immigrants to stay while their case is investigated.

Not everyone agrees. Some members of the public that News 12 New Jersey spoke with say that if immigrants are illegal, they should be "sent back to where they came from."

The federal government wants an immigration detention center for the New York-Philadelphia region and Essex County is a finalist. A spokesman for Essex County said the agreement has not yet been finalized.